Last week reading took us through one design pattern the singleton pattern and a quasi-design pattern the simple factory technique. I was very impressed by both and took some time to analyze their delivery method –how they presented their arguments. On singleton the author presented the design as a conversation in an almost Zen tone. I was attracted to his way of explaining because I believe that a lot of times when studying we let the stress get the better of us and miss many important points. The step by step really show not just how but why. A lot of times we write a lot of code because we know how but not always know why we write it a certain way, which I believe makes the knowledge untransferable –although why is not always important.
The relaxed Zen mode of explaining is also something I appreciate because I am a strong believer that sometimes, some things should be explained like you would explain a 5-year-old, and I have no shame in listening like a 5-year-old. It is easy to have many years of experience on something and forget some of the things taken for granted are very important to the beginner(me). The Zen approach also reminds me of Buddhist monks drawing complex sand diagrams only to erased them and start over again. It is hard to erase bad habits and acquiring good ones, but by creating the habit of erasing habits the learning cycle can be increased considerably. That’s all I must really say on how the authors carried their message, but the interesting thing was the message itself.
The singleton pattern at first was not impressive if anything I always had a bad view of private or protected variables or methods. I never really understood the need to hide things in code maybe because I never really had to write code of considerable size. Once I started working with the pattern it was like a little light bulb flickered on top of my head and I suddenly started seeing the coolness of obfuscation in this case just preventing object overcrowding. I really thought it was pretty cool and I think that in the way the idea was explained the structure will be in my head for quite some time, and I am a very forgetful person.
The simple factory technique was also well explained in just the right number of words. It was very clear that by consolidating actions or delegating the creation of objects helped to minimize how much one class was doing. Uncle bob always say doing too many things is bad, so I think this applies in this case. I was afraid at first that to implement this was to substitute the singleton pattern that I’ve gotten so fond of, but that was not the case. After implementing it I saw that there were other areas that could be greatly improved by consolidating further. My only fear is to know when to stop –how much is too much consolidation.
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